


The Matching Scar

by orphan_account



Category: RWBY
Genre: Best Friends, F/M, First Meetings, Friends to Lovers, ren and nora raised one another, this isnt super shippy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-06-06 22:07:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6772126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ren and Nora have matching scars, Jaune has seen them but it's not until a party that he asks about it and Ren and Nora tell their teammates the story of when they became a family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Matching Scar

Jaune noticed it before anyone else. Or at least he managed to figure it out before anyone else did. 

Everyone had seen the back of Ren’s left arm, from hand to halfway past his elbow the skin was unusually pale and rough, like it had been ripped off and healed the natural way rather than with aura.  
It wasn’t like it was unusual for hunters in training to have scars from before they learned to heal themselves. Those rare times Ruby went without tights there were faint scars from when she had slipped while holding crescent rose - a sign of Qrow’s ‘get in there and do it’ teaching style. Weiss had her eye, Yang’s fists were tattered from her skin splitting after wild punches, Blake and Pyrrha had each of them been in countless fights and their blemishes seemed a part of them as their fingernails or eyelashes. Just another feature. 

So no one questioned why Ren’s arm looked like it had been scorched or doused with acid.   
Jaune thought nothing of it until he saw Nora’s back one day. 

They were roommates and with team RWBY busy in the bathroom Nora just decided to change in their shared room. Ren staunchly faced the wall with the door and had demanded that Nora face the opposite one. It was like herding an unusually friendly pack of cats but eventually she stood in one place long enough to shed her dress, dropping it around her ankles. She chattered away happily the whole time, oblivious to how rigid Ren was as he pretended like his homework still had his full attention. 

That was when the door lock clicked and it swung open as Jaune unsuspectingly walked in and got a good look at the entirety of Nora’s naked back. In under a second Ren’s scarlet face was in front of his own just as Nora started to turn around in greeting. Jaune didn’t have time to say a word before the door was slammed so hard he would have broken his nose if Pyrrha hadn’t yanked him back.

It was more than enough time to see it, though. 

From between her shoulder blades to her waist was a splotch of skin, identical in pallor and texture to Ren’s own arm, unbroken aside from a band across the middle. It stood out more on Nora than it did on Ren, her freckled skin had a naturally rosy tint that made the white patch stand out sharply. 

Jaune was more dazed than he was curious, though, and the knowledge of Nora’s scar settled into the back of his mind - untouched information that could not be forgotten as it involved a member of his team. Jaune couldn’t have forgotten a single thing about and of the three of them, even if he wanted to. 

It wasn’t until they were fighting grim that the memory stirred again. A Nevermore swooped a little too close and they had to scatter. As was her want, Nora dove right for Ren, tackling him away but falling with him rather than taking the hit for herself. They landed heavily, Nora on her face and Ren on his hip alongside her, one arm flung across her back.   
His left arm.   
Over the break in her scar. 

The burns were old, then, Nora’s back had changed as her hips grew wide and her back grew up so the mark didn’t much resemble an arm any more. Even as her back grew around it was still clear that the arm that had been flung across her had been skinny and lacking in all of Ren’s own muscle mass. That was the first time Jaune actually wondered how long they had know one another. 

XxX 

It was another two months before he finally asked. Final exams had ended but the grades had not come in, and the atmosphere of gloom hanging over the dorms was suffocating. Yang had been the one to turn up with arms laden with booze, she knew a place that didn’t card and had loaded up before deciding that Ruby was way too young and Weiss would refuse. 

So she took Blake and nearly pounded down the door to team JNPR’s room with her humor and good cheer. Nora was up for anything that sounded fun, and Ren was in it with her. Pyrrha didn’t seem particularly interested but she still politely held a glass she had been handed and sipped delicately on occasion. For Jaune, this was something he was better at than his teammates and he took it like a champ. It only took an hour before they were too rowdy and had to take it out to the roof where Pyrrha and Jaune trained, team CRDL be damned.

They were short Blake and Yang – Yang had gone to tell her sister an important life lesson and had been supported by an even drunker Blake – so the four of them just laughed and chattered as they passed a large bottle of whisky between them. Their thoughts had become blurry and fizzled like burnt leaves and Jaune found himself asking, “so what’s up with your matching scars?”

“What?” Nora asked as Ren went rigid. Pyrrha looked at him, blinking slowly before she looked curiously at the pair of them. Nora looked around, blushing and she giggled nervously. “I – I don’t know what you – um – that’s that I well . . . “ she finally looked at Ren and made a soft wilting noise and scooted closer to him. “Reeennnnn, heeellllpppp.”

Ren grumbled and let her snuggle close but he glared at Jaune. “Did you peep?” He asked, his words slurred and his gaze unfocused. 

“No! No, that was an accident. But they match so I wanna know.”

“Uh, what’re you talking about?” Pyrrha finally asked and Jaune leaned over to tell her about what he had seen. She screwed up her face in concentration but didn’t seem to follow Jaune’s logic as to why it was important. 

“When we were kids,” Ren explained, “there was a thing and se were there.” He waved one hand unsteadily.

“Yeah! Heh, don’t be silly Jaune.” Nora giggled, “don’t be nosey, Ren’s my family!” Jaune frowned, a little hurt that she meant she didn’t trust him and Pyrrha as much as she trusted Ren before he wondered if he was reading too much into it. He did that sometimes. Ren nodded sagely before Nora patted his cheek without looking at him. “BUT! But I do really like that storrrry! It’s from when we first met!” She giggled and Ren grumbled.

Pyrrha leaned forward so her chest pressed hard into her knees and she dramatically whispered. “is it a good story?” Nora lit up and clapped her hands, saying ‘yes’ the same time as Ren said ‘no’. They turned to stare at each other, both looking shocked.

“No? B-but that’s when we met!”

“But you also got really hurt,” Ren said and Nora made an offended noise. 

“So did you! Hmph. Hey!” She pointed wildly at Jaune and Pyrrha, “I’ll tell you and you tell me if it’s good or bad!”

“Nora, there’s no need-“

“Yeah okay.”  
“Sure!”

XxX

The grimm came in the night. Ren didn’t really know what had attracted them. His mother had picked him up and run to the shed as fast as she could, shutting him inside next to the woodpile before she ran out to join his father, gun in hand. Ren had heard her scream what seemed like seconds later, followed by the sound of gun fire and roaring. Ren covered his years and whimpered, tears stinging his eyes as he waited for his mother to return. 

He waited the whole night.

Ren shook as the inky sky faded into dull gray, a singular mass without sunlight breaking through. The smoke in the air made his eyes sting and smart and his lungs burned, though he dared not to cough. He could hear the grimm outside, still prowling through the town but through the night the sound of fighting slowly faded. Now the noises of grimm sounded almost peaceful as they shuffled around just outside the door. He was scared, trembling as he chewed his lip. His mother had to come back. She said she would, hadn’t she?

Something rubbed up against the shed and he whimpered. All noise stopped. 

Something brushed against the shed again and Red covered his mouth with his hand as he tried to shuffle closer to the wood pile. His foot barely scuffed the ground before there was a deep throated snarl and the head of a small beowolf burst through the shed window. Ren screamed and ran from his hiding place, fumbling at the door that was far too large for him before he managed to squeeze out and took off running. 

His town was in ruins, Ren only barely processed charred corpses and burning buildings as he ran, tears in his eyes. Where was his mother? Ren ducked through a narrow alley where grimm couldn’t easily follow before he ran headlong towards the edge of town.

He ran. He ran, he ran, and he ran. He ran until his legs felt like jelly and his lungs burned and then he ran some more. Tears streamed down his face. Mom! Dad! He wanted to scream, but he could only gasp as his strides weakened and he began to slow. No! Legs, move! He wanted to scream. He had to get out of the city! He had to –

An arm reached out from a dark doorway and clotheslined him. Ren gagged as he was knocked flat onto his back before suddenly someone was sitting on top of him. “Shut up!” a high voice squeaked before two thumps jammed into their one of his cheeks and pulled his lips up into a stupidly wide grin. “You have to cheer up! They won’t notice you if you stop being scared!” She whisper hissed. 

Ren’s eyes came into focus and Ren saw the little girl sitting on him. She was pudgy, with a layer of prominent baby fat not unusual for such a young girl, and her sunburned face was peeling. Her long orange hair hung around his head like a curtain, surrounding his face so for a moment the only thing that seemed to exist was the little girl’s face with the forced smile and the ash on his face smeared with grimy tear tracks. Now she just looked haunted.

“You’re the hunter’s kid?”

“SHH!” she hissed as she pressed her hand to his mouth. But Ren knew he was right. He had seen her tailing after the tall woman with long golden-red hair and a stern look. She carried an old battle axe and his father had leaned in and told him that she was a huntress, one of many hired to take care of the approaching hoard of grimm. Ren had swallowed down his spike of fear before he let his father lead him away. 

Now the hunter’s daughter pulled him to his feet, picking up the sledgehammer she had dropped when she sat on him before she dragged him into the house she had been hiding in. “I have a plan.”

XxX

When the attack started, Nora’s mother had cursed the fearful villagers for attracting so many. “I knew I should have never come here!” She spat before she stormed out, leaving Nora without a word. She wasn’t scared, she had seen grimm all her life and she had seen the way her mother could handle an axe. 

When she heard the first roar, Nora pushed a chair up to the large hotel window and climbed on so she could watch from tip toes as her mother stepped onto the street. Her hair whipped around her wildly like a golden halo of fire, and even from the third floor Nora thought she could see her mother’s eyes flashing cold teal as electricity sparked along her arms. 

With a mighty swing, her mother beheaded a monster grimm bear and Nora made a face. Gross! But her mother looked so cool with swirls of black smoke ah dead grimm rising through the air and Nora pressed her button nose to the glass. Her mother swung seemingly without thought, but she mowed through grimm and Nora hummed to herself. Just another night – she hoped her mother would remember to read her a bed time story once she was done.

But the end didn’t come.

Nora’s bed time came and went as she saw the warm glow of fires starting on the far side of the village, and closer where her mother’s electricity semblance sparked out of control. Her mother looked . . . exhausted. Nora found worry sinking in her gut as more and more creatures of grimm appeared. It seemed that for every one her mother mowed down another three appeared. They attacked wildly, not as a single mind but like feral animals without regard for one another or their own lives. 

It was vicious, but Nora was too afraid to look away. She actually screamed when she saw one of the people fleeing grabbed by a beowolf and ripped into two bloody halves before her mother behead it. That wasn’t the last person Nora see die that night. More people ran like terrified cattle and a huntsman protecting them was thrown into a fire, only to stagger out minutes later with charred clothes and melting flesh. He collapsed on the ground as the grimm tore apart the people he had been protecting. 

Nora knew that her fear would bring more grimm but she couldn’t help it. She was afraid. She was so, so unspeakably afraid. Her mother would be furious with her and Nora furiously wiped her eyes as she sniffled. She could be strong. She had to be strong.

Until she saw a boarbatusk gore her mother through the chest. The pig grimm squealed triumphantly and tossed it’s head, splitting Nora’s mother down to her pelvis and charging as her guts started to slip out, trampling her intestines and shredding them in the dirt. Nora sat in stunned silence. 

No.

No way.

That hadn’t happened.

Nora stared down at the crumpled form of her mother, gutted with her gore spattered across half the street. No, no! Nora’s mother was indestructible! She couldn’t- no!

With a strangled sob, Nora fled the room, running through the abandoned hotel and to the front desk. The lights flickered and a hologram of a helpful man appeared, asking for Nora’s identification card or electronic key. Nora ran through him and grabbed the sledgehammer out of the desk toolbox and she ran to hide in the lobby. There she could see the streets without seeing her mother. 

The fighting lasted all night, and Nora forced herself to grin. If she was happy the grimm wouldn’t see her. If she smiled then she wouldn’t be hurt. And she wasn’t. Dawn came and dawn went before Nora finally slipped out, darting into the next building over. She had to get out of the village and into the forest. There were grimm there too but they weren’t so densely packed. Nora could make it to the next village over if she could only just get out. 

The village was silent, Nora wondered if anyone else was out. If anyone else was left alive. She hoped so. 

Though, when she saw a boy running by Nora yelped and almost let him sprint on past before she realized he was going to get himself killed at that rate. She did the first thing she could think of, which was throwing out her arm and knocking the kid out flat on his boney arse then climbing on top of him. 

He was small and skinny, but he looked weirdly stretched like he was in the middle of a growth spurt. His watery magenta eyes bored into her and she grabbed his face to force him to smile. He really was going to get himself killed! She had to help him!

“Shut up! You have to cheer up! They won’t notice you if you stop being scared!” He was staring at her like he thought her face would open up and a grimm would fall out but she wouldn’t give him time to panic, and she made him smile until she thought he would hold the expression.

He took a shaky breath before he said, “you’re the hunter’s kid?” at full volume. Nora slapped her hand back down on his face.

“SHH!” She hissed. No grimm seemed to have noticed, though, so Nora relaxed a little. She pulled him up to his feet as she picked up her hammer. “I have a plan.” He stared at her like a scared deer and she grabbed his hand in hers. “I know what to do, just follow me and stay quiet!” She hissed before she continued to take him along the path she had chosen. She snaked between houses, trying to think the most positive thoughts she could to outweigh the fear radiating off the boy.

Things were going well until, as these always seemed to do, it all went very wrong. 

They were almost out of the village when the house they were sneaking through groaned loudly. Nora snapped her head up, recognizing the sound of a nevermore handing briefly on the roof before it took off again while Ren spied the fire from the neighboring house suddenly making a quick jump into the one they were in, fanned by the massive grimm’s wings. The two children looked at each other as the roof groaned painfully before they started running.

They made it to the kitchen before the roof collapsed. Nora tackled Ren, trying to protect him as she fell but instead she landed on her face, and Ren had his arm flung over her back when the roof collapsed on top of them. Nora screamed at the feeling of the weight crushing down on her, deaf to Ren’s own cries. 

She wiggled as she tried to escape but she was unable to move. She was trapped and the fire was spreading. Nora looked around frantically before she looked at the boy beside her. “Run,” she whispered. His eyes went wide but Nora shook her head. She had always wanted to be a hero like her mother and this seemed like her only chance. “Get out of here!”

“I . . . I can’t. My arm’s stuck too,” Ren said after a long pause. Nora stared at him for a long moment before her eyes started to water. No! No! She couldn’t even save one stupid boy!? No, no Nora had to stay positive! She sucked it up and looked around, trying to ignore the pain in her back. There had to be a way to escape. Or at least a better way to die than waiting to be eaten by flames. 

Then she saw them. “H-hey. You, see those wires over there?” Nora pointed with her eyes and Ren looked to see exposed wires. They were sparking bright white and he looked back at her in confusion. “I need you to grab them and touch me with them.”

“What!?”

“Just trust me!” She shot back and Ren flinched. Well. She was a Hunter’s kid. He reached out with his free arm and grabbed the plastic covering of the wires before he slowly teased them out of the wall enough that he could press them to Nora’s neck. She closed her eyes and squared her jaw as the sparks raced through her body. She had seen her mother do it, and Nora’s aura had been awakened for as long as she could remember. 

She raised herself to her knees as electricity burst from her back and ran through the material on her back, tearing apart her flesh and Ren’s arm where they were in contact with the debris. Ren winced but her aura awakened his own and as pain lanced through them his purple aura pulsed, forming a solid wall against it that Nora shouldered against and threw it off them. They were panting heavily, and they had to support each other as they staggered onto the street. Almost all of Nora’s back was raw and shredded and Ren’s arm hung limp and useless as blood dripped off his fingers. But they were alive. And the determination that filled them from that fact alone kept any grimm from paying them any mind. 

It wasn’t until they reached the forest that they spoke again. 

“I’m Nora.”

“. . . Ren.”


End file.
